It Calls on the Government to Drop Pot's Shared Classification With
Drugs Such As Heroin and LSD That Are Considered to Have No Medicinal
Value.

A large and respected association of physicians is calling on the
federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and
hasten research into the drug's therapeutic uses.

The American College of Physicians, the nation's largest organization
of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members, contends that
the long and rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has obscured
good science that has demonstrated the benefits and medicinal promise
of cannabis.

In a 13-page position paper approved by the college's governing board
of regents and posted Thursday on the group's website, the group calls
on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification
it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD that are
considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse.

The declaration could put new pressure on Washington lawmakers and
government regulators who for decades have rejected attempts to
reclassify marijuana.

[snip]

The American College of Physicians' position paper calls for
protection of both doctors and patients from criminal and civil
penalties in states that have adopted medical-marijuana laws.

"We felt the time had come to speak up about this," said Dr. David
Dale, the group's president. "We'd like to clear up the uncertainty
and anxiety of patients and physicians over this drug."

Medical-marijuana advocates embraced the position paper as a watershed
event that could help turn the battle in their favor.

[snip]

In the 12 years since California voters approved the nation's first-
ever medical marijuana law, several medical organizations -- including
the American Nurses Assn. and the American Public Health Assn. -- have
urged Congress to make cannabis a legal medicine.

But the ACP is second in size only to the American Medical Assn.,
which has about 240,000 members.

The AMA has urged research into medical marijuana but opposes dropping
it from Schedule I. Backers of the ACP's position expressed hope that
it could help nudge the AMA to adopt a similar stance.

"This could be a sea change," said Dr. Abraham L. Halpern, a professor
emeritus at New York Medical College.

Halpern said he intends to petition the AMA to endorse rescheduling
marijuana and to push for changes in federal regulations that would
prevent federal anti-drug agencies -- the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse -- from having
virtual veto power over cannabis research.

The ACP position paper urges the use of non-smoked forms of cannabis
as well as further research to identify the illnesses best treated
with cannabis and the proper dosages for specific conditions.

It called for further research into cannabis as a pain reliever for
conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and as an aid in treatment of
neurological and movement disorders such as spasticity, pain and
tremor in patients with multiple sclerosis, spinal-cord injuries and
other trauma.

Travel guru Rick Steves wants America to take a cue from Europe and
start talking seriously about marijuana.

Too many lives, according to Steves, are ruined by criminal penalties
associated with pot possession, and too much law enforcement and too
many court resources are tied up focusing on cannabis as a legal
problem instead of a health issue.

Steves, who built his Edmonds travel business into a nationally known
television show with travel books and tours, is now taking his
marijuana message to the masses, too.

Wednesday, together with the American Civil Liberties Union of
Washington, Steves introduced a half-hour infomercial-style program he
hosts called "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation." The program is
available on Comcast on Demand, and promoters hope it will soon debut
on local television stations.

Steves is a board member for the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws and has spoken openly in support of decriminalizing
marijuana for five years, including during Seattle's annual Hempfest.

"Our government's war on drugs sounds very tough and results-driven,
but all it really succeeds at is being enormously expensive, tearing
families apart and treating nonconformists as criminals," said Steves.
He compared marijuana laws to alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and
urged differentiating between soft and hard drugs.

[snip]

Nationally, $7.5 billion is spent annually for marijuana law
enforcement, with 830,000 arrested each year, according to ACLU
research. In Washington, marijuana possession is a misdemeanor and
carries a minimum sentence of one day in jail, and a $250 fine for the
first offense.

Harvesting Peyote Is Legal for Only Three People, and All of Them Live in Texas

Mauro Morales picks his way through mesquite trees and prickly pear
cacti. The 65-year-old cautiously steps around a thicket of tasajillo,
or rattail cactus, just down the road from his small ranch near Rio
Grande City. Tasajillo thorns stick you like a fish hook, he says.
Then there's the cola seca--the rattlesnake--another job hazard.

[snip]

Morales almost never utters the word "peyote." For him, the small
green-gray cactus is a sacrament with miraculous healing powers, hence
his word for it: medicine.

What makes peyote different from just about any other cactus in the
world is that it naturally produces mescaline, a psychedelic alkaloid
that can induce hallucinations lasting for days. It was mescaline that
opened what Aldous Huxley called "the doors of perception" to "the
divine source of all existence."

Before LSD, before Ecstasy, there was peyote.

Peyote and mescaline are both classified by the federal government as
Schedule I Controlled Substances. This puts them in the same legal
category as crack and heroin, drugs that, according to the Drug
Enforcement Administration, have "a high potential for abuse, no
currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and
a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under
medical supervision."

Much recent scientific research contradicts the DEA's verdict on
peyote. There is little evidence of any adverse long-term effects on
physical health and virtually no evidence that it is addictive.

Still, harvesting and selling peyote is illegal for all but three
people in the entire country. And those three people happen to be
located in Texas, operating in a swath of South Texas between Rio
Grande City and Laredo.

[snip]

According to James Botsford, an attorney who has been defending peyote
use by Indians for decades, there's a clear distinction between Indian
and non-Indian peyote users. The law, he says, protects Native
American Church members who can prove they have one grandparent from a
federally recognized tribe.

[snip]

Mauro Morales looks a little worried when he talks about Mexican
peyote. He knows that there's much more medicine on the other side of
the border, but he's not crossing the river to seek it out. Even
though he's a licensed dealer, transporting the stuff across the
border would land him in jail. And he's skeptical of the Mexican
police.

This will be a make-or-break year for medical marijuana dispensaries -
if they can survive the tactics employed by the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA), which recently added busting
dispensaries' landlords to its repertoire of raids and fear. As urged
by Senate Joint Resolution 20 by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San
Francisco, the federal government needs to back off and respect state
compassionate use laws that authorize a network of responsible, law
abiding and tax-paying medical marijuana providers.

[snip]

The DEA believes these dispensaries are illegal drug dealers
facilitating recreational drug use. However, most of the dispensary
operators who have contacted the State Board of Equalization for
information about how to obtain seller's permits for collecting and
remitting sales taxes are not fugitives, but responsible persons
willing to abide by the laws to conduct their businesses.

For example, the Compassion Center for Alameda County was licensed by
Alameda County. It paid $3 million in sales taxes prior to being shut
down by the DEA at the end of October. The center had employed about
50 workers who earned a living wage and were provided health benefits,
unemployment insurance and workers' compensation coverage. Take
another example. Nature's Medicinal in Bakersfield had been licensed
by Kern County. It paid almost $1 million in taxes until its closure
in 2007, including $203,000 in federal and state income taxes,
$365,000 in payroll taxes and $427,000 in sales taxes. Nature's had 25
employees: eight were indicted, and the rest were left unemployed and
without health insurance after the raid.

[snip]

We applaud the leadership of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John
Conyers, D-Mich., in his oversight of the DEA's property forfeiture
threats. Recognizing the conflict between federal and state law, we
will continue to exercise our responsibilities as state policymakers
to the fullest extent and uphold the will of California voters to
regulate the provision and availability of medical marijuana for those
in need. Meanwhile the Legislature should approve SJR20, urging the
federal government to honor California law and respect state-
sanctioned dispensaries so medical marijuana patients can treat their
pain, pay their taxes, and live in peace.

Concern about the safety of pharmaceutical drugs, which is perfectly
legitimate, may veer toward hysteria now that the trend has a tragic
celebrity death involved. And the press probably still won't
understand how fear tactics make the situation worse, not better.
The New York Times editorial page showed an example of the same old
stupid reporting (and thinking) on drugs, suggesting that less
funding for failed anti-drug programs is somehow a bad thing.

On the other hand, an Idaho newspaper did an excellent job
challenging the current federal hype about drug tests for students.
And my last story this week isn't really significant, except that it
features perhaps the most ill-considered, but amusing, name I've
every heard for an anti-drug group.

Once it was cocaine, speed or heroin, but now the fashion is for
legal pills, washed down by spirits. Last week's news that actor
Heath Ledger, right, died from an overdose of prescription tablets
shed light on a startling new trend - misuse of over-the-counter
pills now kills more Americans than illegal drugs. Elizabeth Day in
New York

Alex is a man who prides himself on sticking to routine. He likes to
start the day with a large cappuccino from Starbucks and to end it
with a handful of anti-depressants washed down with vodka. 'It's my
treat after coming home from work,' he says. 'I guess it just chills
me out a little.' In many ways Alex, 31, is a typical well-heeled
young New Yorker. He works in finance, holidays in the Hamptons and
enjoys partying at the sort of exclusive nightclubs where having
your name on the guest list is a prerequisite to entry. He also
likes to get high on prescription drugs.

Tonight he is celebrating a friend's birthday at Marquee, one of the
city's hippest nightspots. The main bar, lined with leather
banquettes, is cast in a shadowy half-light. In the upstairs
lavatory there is a small framed sign on the back of the door
reminding guests the use of illegal drugs will not be permitted.

But Alex would not consider himself a drug abuser. For him, those
small white Xanax tablets on his bathroom shelves are simply a
recreational accompaniment to the $15 Grey Goose vodka martini he
has just been served. And, what's more, they're entirely legal.

Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2008Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company

If we have learned one thing in the protracted war on drugs, it is
that reining in illicit drug trafficking will require more than
fighting cartels south of the border. Nothing can be achieved unless
this country curbs its own demand for illegal narcotics.

The Bush administration, which offers regular lectures on the
superior logic of the free market, clearly doesn't get this equation
of supply and demand. Last October, Washington announced a new $1.4
billion assistance package for Mexico and Central America to combat
the drug trade. Then the White House unveiled its 2009 budget, which
calls for a 1.5 percent cut in spending on domestic drug prevention
and treatment programs.

The statistics on drug abuse for this country are at best mixed. The
share of teenagers who said they had tried illicit drugs within a
year has fallen sharply since 2000, according to surveys by
researchers at the University of Michigan. The percentage of
students in 8th, 10th or 12th grades who tried methamphetamine
declined by more than half over the same period, while cocaine abuse
declined by almost a quarter among 8th graders and 10th graders.

Still, teenage abuse of other narcotics, like prescription drugs, is
growing. So is drug abuse among adults. The latest National Drug
Threat Assessment reports that many more Americans over 18 are
trying everything from heroin to marijuana to methamphetamine.

Yet the White House's budget proposal for 2009 cuts the funding for
the prevention and treatment of drug abuse to $4.9 billion. The
budget for prevention programs -- like the drug-free schools grants
- -- was cut by 14.2 percent to just above $1.5 billion. After
accounting for inflation, spending on prevention has fallen every
year since 2002.

What do the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Association for
Addiction Professionals and the National Association of Social
Workers have in common?

Each organization opposes the random drug testing of middle and
highschool students.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its stance opposing
random student drug testing twice in 2007. In March the AAP said,
"There is little evidence of the effectiveness of school-based drug
testing." In December the AAP concluded, "Physicians should not
support drug testing in schools . It has not yet been established
that drug testing does not cause harm."

Nevertheless, random drug-testing programs have been touted at all
levels of community and government as a sure-fire way to deter kids
from using drugs.

According to the Idaho State Department of Education, during the
2006-07 school year, 36 of the state's 115 public school districts
spent $73,812 on random testing as part of their drug-prevention and
education curricula. Another 33 districts did random testing through
programs such as Idaho Drug Free Youth.

Support for the programs came from the Safe and Drug Free Schools
Program, funded in part by $5.5 million in state tobacco and lottery
tax revenue and $1.68 million in federal grants.

"For school districts to access these funds, they must design a
comprehensive substance abuse and violence prevention program that
meets the principles of effectiveness and must be approved by the
State Department of Education," said Melissa McGrath, a department
spokeswoman. "It is not allowable to implement a random drug-testing
program in isolation. It must be part of a much broader prevention
strategy."

Not only are researchers questioning the effectiveness of student
drug testing, but civil libertarians also question its fairness.

"We are opposed to random drug testing. It is unnecessary, unfair
and does not respect student privacy rights," said Jack
VanValkenburgh, executive director of the Idaho American Civil
Liberties Union. "Instead of being innocent until proven guilty,
students, in order to participate in sports and other activities,
must prove they are innocent."

The public was the beneficiary of a seminar for educators Wednesday
night.

Gary Shimabukuro of Laulima Hawai'i was scheduled to do a day-long
seminar for Kaua'i's educators yesterday, but on Wednesday night,
Shimabukuro and a group of professionals in substance abuse opened
up the doors of the Kaua'i War Memorial Convention Hall for members
of the public.

Theresa Koki, the county's anti-drug coordinator, said the "Got
Drugs?" program is a follow up of last year's community drug
awareness seminar that was sponsored by the County of Kaua'i and
Leadership Kaua'i.

"We are fortunate to once again have the opportunity to bring Gary
Shimabukuro back this time with several other notable presenters to
further our awareness of the drug-related issues that affect our
community daily," Koki said in the evening's program guide.

Koki said that with so much happening in Hawai'i and on Kaua'i, the
county pooled community resources to provide materials and other
information in support of the special guest speakers who follow the
trends and were available to update the public to better understand
the current drug situation.

The U.S. Attorney General is continuing his scare tactics on
sentencing guideline revisions, but the U.S. Congress apparently
isn't buying. In Maryland, a lawmaker tacitly admits that current
government efforts at stopping youth drug use aren't working, so he
wants to pull another state bureaucracy into the picture, no matter
the cost. Overzealous drug enforcement in California leads to a
lawsuit; and in Ohio, even a police chief is complaining about an
overzealous drug investigation, one that happened to be directed at
an officer in his department.

Senate Democrats rejected Attorney General Michael Mukasey's request
to roll back sentencing guidelines that would enable thousands of
prisoners to seek reductions in sentences for crack-cocaine
convictions. Mukasey asked Congress to alter the U.S. Sentencing
Commission's directive, effective March 3, that would allow for the
reduction requests. The directive could flood courts with requests
from thousands of violent criminals, the Justice Department says.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called Mukasey's concerns a "scare
tactic." Federal law comes down harder on crack violations than
powder-cocaine violations. Kennedy says that amounts to
discrimination because more blacks are arrested for crack
violations. The Sentencing Commission adopted the harsher sentence
in the 1980s in response to a crack epidemic.

ANNAPOLIS -- A Democratic lawmaker wants to drug test all driver's
license applicants under 21 and vows to "fight like a tiger" to push
the legislation, which he hopes will save lives.

But opponents say the policy is unconstitutional, ineffective and
prohibitively expensive.

The legislation, introduced by Delegate Marvin E. Holmes, Jr. of
Prince George's County, would require the Motor Vehicle
Administration to test the breath and blood of driver's license
applicants under 21 for alcohol and controlled substances. A
positive test would result in the suspension of driving privileges
for six months, although the applicant would be entitled to a
hearing.

About 65,000 individuals under 21 applied for driver's licenses in
Maryland in 2007, according to the bill's fiscal policy note, which
estimates an annual cost increase of at least $945,500 in the first
year and more than $1.2 million annually by 2010.

He also claims several ounces of marijuana seized by police were
neither listed on his property receipt nor returned to him, along
with 15 Temazepam pills for Barnett's insomnia that he said went
missing from Barnett's home after the raid.

COLUMBUS - The city will re-evaulate the termination of former
officer Donald Peterson after the U.S. Attorney's Office was granted
a motion to dismiss federal drug charges against him and four
others.

Peterson was fired from the Zanesville Police Department in January
after being indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute crack,
five counts of selling or distributing morphine, Oxycodone and
crack, and one count of conspiracy to distribute crack, morphine,
Oxycodone and other controlled substances.

"Don has maintained from day one that he hadn't done anything
wrong," said David Thomas, Peterson's attorney. "He deserves to be
vindicated."

According to Fred Alverson, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's
Office, the reasons behind the dismissal for are not being disclosed
at this time and his office can make no comment.

But it leaves Police Chief Eric Lambes furious.

"It appears the FBI and Muskingum County Sheriff's Office may have
been over zealous in their attempt to pursue prosecution of a
Zanesville Police Officer," Lambes said. "Their actions have damaged
the credibility of the police department and the officers who work
here."

An interesting decision from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, that
the scent of burnt cannabis is not reasonable grounds for a search.
One wonders how this ruling will fit in with the Canadian
government's proposed drugged-driving laws.

The Canadian government is doing everything within its power to
sabotage their court-ordered medicinal cannabis program, on which the
constitutionality of cannabis prohibition depends, and proposing to
escalate the war with mandatory minimum sentences.

While several states are fighting the DEA's prohibition of hemp,
Canadian farmers and businesses are cashing in on their North
American monopoly.

NORML's Paul Armentano made a scholarly case for proposed legislation
in New Hampshire that would replace criminal sanctions with civil
penalties.

Some predict that the sheer number of medicinal cannabis dispensaries
sprouting up in Los Angeles will eventually overwhelm the DEA, but as
Andrew Dickson once said, "The last struggles of a great superstition
are very frequently the worst."

The scent of marijuana wafting from an open car window doesn't give an
officer grounds to make an arrest and search a vehicle, according to a
recent decision from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

But city police don't believe the verdict will deter them from
arresting dope-smoking drivers.

The ruling is centred around the case of Archibald Janvier. He was
driving alone in La Loche four years ago when he was pulled over by an
RCMP officer. His truck had a broken headlight.

The officer said he approached the vehicle and could smell burnt
marijuana from a metre away. Janvier, who now runs a business in Fort
McMurray, Alta., was immediately arrested for possession of marijuana
based only on the scent of the burnt drug.

The officer then searched the vehicle and found eight grams of
marijuana and what was thought to be a list of contacts -- which
resulted in the charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

"Until now police have used the smell of marijuana as reasonable
grounds to arrest someone for possession of marijuana," said Ronald
Piche, Janvier's lawyer. "It always struck me as a little thin
frankly. It's frankly a lazy officer's way of giving out a warrant and
getting to check a vehicle out and often times finding some evidence."

The case went to trial and the judge found the arrest was a violation
of Janvier's charter right to be free from unreasonable search and
seizure.

The scent of marijuana indicated a suspicion that it was smoked but
didn't provide reasonable and probable grounds for an arrest or a
search, the judge concluded and excluded the evidence. Janvier was
declared not guilty.

AS an 18-year-old, Mike Fata weighed 300 pounds and decided to go on a
no-fat diet.

It almost killed him.

But while researching essential dietary fats, he got excited about the
nutritional benefits of hemp.

Thirteen years later and more than 100 pounds lighter, Fata heads
Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils, a company with projected sales
this year of $6 million and customers as far flung as Europe and
Australia.

This month, the company's Hemp Bliss -- an organic hemp beverage and
milk substitute that won the best-new-product award at a major U.S.
natural products trade show last fall -- will be sold in Sobeys
stores. It has become a staple, along with soy-based and rice-based
milk alternatives, in local health food stores in the last 10 months.

Hemp Bliss, an organic product sold in three flavours -- original,
chocolate and vanilla -- is the latest Manitoba Harvest product to hit
North American natural, organic and mainstream grocery stores.

The company also sells hemp seeds, hemp seed oil, hemp seed nut butter
and a protein powder that can be used in power shakes.

Besides Sobeys, Manitoba Harvest products are also found in Loblaws
stores in Eastern Canada and many Superstores. The company has 31
distributors throughout North America.

An employee at the McPhillips Street Vita Health store, which carries
the full line of Manitoba Harvest products, said Monday that sales of
the hemp milk have been steady, though hemp seeds are the brand's
biggest seller.

"A lot of people can't stand the taste of soy. It's very dry," said
the employee, who did not give her name.

Manitoba has become the centre of hemp food production in North
America.

It was more than 35 years ago that the LeDain Commission recommended
marijuana be decriminalized in Canada.

Attempts to suppress or even control its use were failing, possession
laws were enforced on a "selective and discriminatory" basis and its
prohibited status invited "exploitation" by criminal elements,
concluded the Royal Commission in 1972.

It suggested the government regulate cannabis in the same way as
alcohol, which resulted in proposed legislation to decriminalize
possession. The bill died on the order paper when a federal election
was called in 1974, in the same way that a similar bill died 30 years
later.

Today, discussion about reforming the country's marijuana laws is not
on the political landscape. If anything, the country is moving in the
opposite direction.

The government of Stephen Harper has ruled out any changes to the law,
and during a visit to marijuana-friendly Vancouver last week, Liberal
leader Stephane Dion said his party is not going to advocate for the
end of criminal sanctions for possession.

Another sign that the marijuana lobby has lost political momentum is
the recent announcement by Marc Emery that he is giving up his
extradition fight. The self-professed "Prince of Pot" is negotiating a
plea bargain with U.S. authorities to try to reduce a prison sentence
for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.

[snip]

"There is a cycle of ignorance that seems impossible to transcend" in
any discussion about marijuana, suggested Alan Young, a professor at
Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto, who has represented chronically
ill people in a number of medical marijuana court challenges. "We are
either running on the spot or moving backwards," he said.

As a native New Englander, I've followed New Hampshire's brewing
debate over marijuana law enforcement with close interest. As someone
who has examined the impact of marijuana laws on human behavior for
more than a dozen years, I'm supportive of those who wish to
reclassify minor pot offenses from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil
fine.

According to government surveys, an estimated 98 million Americans -
-- nearly half the U.S. population -- have smoked marijuana. Clearly,
criminal prohibitions outlawing pot possession have done little to
curb Americans' desire for, use of or access to this drug. Conversely,
enforcing this prohibition has incurred significant fiscal and
emotional costs.

In 2006, the last year for which national data is available, law
enforcement arrested over 829,000 persons for marijuana violations -
the highest annual total ever recorded. Of those arrested,
approximately 90 percent were charged with minor marijuana possession
only, not trafficking or sale.

Of course, not everyone busted for possessing small amounts of pot
receives jail time -- most do not. But that doesn't mean that they
don't suffer significant hardships stemming from their arrest. Seldom
emphasized penalties associated with a minor marijuana conviction
include probation and mandatory drug testing, loss of employment, loss
of child custody, removal from subsidized housing, asset forfeiture,
loss of federal student aid, loss of voting privileges, loss of
adoption rights, and the loss of certain federal welfare benefits such
as food stamps. Thousands of Americans suffer such sanctions every day
-- at a rate of one person every 38 seconds.

New Hampshire legislators can end this counterproductive practice by
moving forward with legislation, House Bill 1623, that would replace
existing criminal sanctions with civil penalties, punishable by a fine
only.

Los Angeles has become the unofficial capital of storefront shops that
sell marijuana in recent years, and so many have sprouted that no one
knows exactly how many exist.

But those freewheeling times are skidding to a halt.

The City Council has imposed a moratorium on any new pot shops and is
moving to regulate the existing ones. Users are feeling a chill, too,
from a recent court ruling that allows California employers to fire
pot smokers -- even if the marijuana is used at home and purchased
under state law.

But even worse for marijuana shop owners, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, which has conducted raids of medical marijuana
dispensaries, recently began sending letters to some shop landlords
telling them that their property could be confiscated because it is
being used for illegal activity, at least under federal law. The DEA
has never recognized California's so-called compassionate use
legislation and considers marijuana dispensaries as little more than
drug dealers.

"It's tough for all of us who have been trying to run a reputable
business that helped a lot of sick people get their medicine," said
Michael Leavitt, who shut his Canoga Park dispensary last summer.

His landlord had received a letter from the DEA, pointing out that his
property could be seized under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act
of 2000.

"For the price of a postage stamp, they closed me up," said Leavitt,
who had never been raided and is himself a patient who uses medical
marijuana to alleviate symptoms of several chronic diseases.

Leavitt's former landlord, Miguel Fernandez, said he initially was
leery of renting to a pot dispensary, but said Leavitt turned out to
be a model tenant.

"I still have not been able to rent his space to someone as good,"
said Fernandez, adding that it was Leavitt's decision to liquidate his
business rather than call the DEA's bluff.

In Canada, reverberations from the ten-year-old recently dropped
charges of police drug-squad corruption continue to be felt. By not
disclosing evidence in a timely manner to the defense, the
government was able to throw the case. "This 'glacial pace'," writes
Osgoode Hall Law School professor Alan Young, "is astonishing
considering that the officers were not charged with crimes of great
forensic complexity. We are talking about alleged acts of thievery,
assault and extortion... Our legal system has a dismal track record
when it comes to investigating and prosecuting allegations of police
illegality and misconduct."

A background piece, "Drug Laws Rooted In Class Control," appeared in
the Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada newspaper Daily Gleaner this
week. We are constantly told that the anti-opium laws were enacted a
century ago, to protect the unwary from unscrupulous snake-oil
salesman. But the truth of the matter is that Canada's narcotics
laws are rooted in racism and class control. Writes Chris McCormick,
St. Thomas University professor of criminology, that "by blaming the
Chinese for the opium problem, attention was distracted...The opium
laws were a momentous change in criminal law in Canada. The result
was the transformation of private drug use into a public problem...
In the process the role of the state was preserved as legitimate,
the Chinese were vilified as a threat and drugs were demonized as
the problem."

Police in the UK town of Lancing last week raided the town's
cannabis cafe -- "Britain's most fortified cannabis cafe" -- for the
third time. The raid took police fifteen minutes to enter, upon
which, "No further arrests were made inside the building and no
other cannabis was found." The raid was prompted when patrons of the
cafe were found to possess small quantities of cannabis. Millions in
the UK claim that cannabis brings them relief for a list of
ailments.

And from the UK Observer newspaper this week: the family doctor has
"Britain 'hooked on painkillers' according to a government inquiry.
"[F]amily doctors are contributing to growing problems associated
with these substances by not taking seriously enough requests for
help from addicts, and by mismanaging patients with chronic pain."
Dr Brian Iddon, a Labour MP and former pharmacist chaired the group,
investigated use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and
singled out "online pharmacies" which mail out prescription drugs
"to anyone logging in and giving a credit-card number."

When the drug squad corruption case came crashing to the ground last
month I was not at all surprised.

[snip]

Although I do not have much sympathy for these officers, it would be
categorically wrong to claim that they "got off on a technicality."
Their charges were stayed because of an unreasonable delay largely
caused by the failure of the Crown to properly discharge its
constitutional obligation to make full and complete disclosure to
the accused. Disclosure was provided by way of an instalment plan
with 125,000 pages of documents disclosed prior to the preliminary
hearing being set, another 80,000 pages while awaiting the
preliminary hearing and another 110,000 pages upon completion of the
prelim.

It took the Crown close to four years just to show its
hand.

Reasonable people may disagree about the value of some of our legal
rights, but the right to full disclosure is a no-brainer.

[snip]

In granting a stay of proceedings in this case, Justice Ian
Nordheimer set the length of the delay at 56 months. This "glacial
pace" is astonishing considering that the officers were not charged
with crimes of great forensic complexity. We are talking about
alleged acts of thievery, assault and extortion. The fact that there
are multiple defendants who are police officers undoubtedly
increases the seriousness of the crimes but it should not
necessarily increase the complexity of bringing a fairly simple
accusation to trial.

Somehow the process was derailed and some blame the "blue wall" of
non-cooperation of fellow officers for slowing down the
investigation while others point the finger at the Crown for
indifference, or even sabotage.

[snip]

First, it must not be forgotten that our legal system
has a dismal track record when it comes to
investigating and prosecuting allegations of police
illegality and misconduct.

[snip]

The police complaints process is even worse - it is full of
stonewalls, double-talk, endless delegation, delay and indecision.
Few people seem to care that the absence of meaningful review and
accountability is like handing over a blank cheque to officers
inclined to misconduct.

[snip]

But in light of our dismal track record, the mere fact that this
case ended in a no-decision is a criminal justice disaster because
it suggests in the minds of many that the justice system plays
favourites with the police being indulged like mischievous children
who can do no wrong in the eyes of the parents. As with every other
failed prosecution of the police, the collapse of this prosecution
can only serve to further erode the perceived legitimacy of the
system.

We tend to take the law for granted, but sometimes its origins
deserve a little thought.

For example, it's something of a puzzle why certain narcotics were
seen as dangerous and criminalized in the early 20th century when
before 1908, there were few restrictions placed on the sale or
consumption of narcotics.

[snip]

However, research has looked at the role of opium legislation in the
context of the government's need to deal with an increasingly
difficult labour situation.

Chinese labour constituted both real and symbolic threats within the
British Columbia working class, which was itself being de-skilled
and unionized.

Relations between management and labour were approaching a crisis
situation by the turn of the century, and the government needed a
way to channel class conflict and deflect blame.

[snip]

Third, by blaming the Chinese for the opium problem, attention was
distracted from the whites who sold, distributed and used the drug.

The opium laws were a momentous change in criminal law in Canada.
The result was the transformation of private drug use into a public
problem. The responsibility was put on the heads of Mongolians, in
King's terms.

This turned people away from socialism as a solution to labour
problems. It also turned them away from seeing the labour crisis as
a class issue rather than an ethnic issue.

In the process the role of the state was preserved as legitimate,
the Chinese were vilified as a threat and drugs were demonized as
the problem.

Did the state intend the crisis to further its legitimation?
Probably not.

Did it benefit? Certainly.

Chris McCormick teaches criminology at St. Thomas University. His
column on crime and criminal justice appears every second Thursday.

POLICE have raided Lancing's cannabis cafe for a third time - taking
15 minutes to get in.

In what is thought to be Britain's most fortified cannabis cafe,
officers took around a quarter of an hour to gain entry to the
building, on a slip road off Freshbrook Road, Lancing, during the
raid during the evening of Wednesday, February 6.

The raid took place after two people, a man and a woman, were
arrested for possession of cannabis after being spotted leaving the
cafe.

[snip]

"Officers at the scene reported the smell of cannabis burning in the
air while they waited for entry and on entering found a burner
situated on the premises having been used prior to entry being
gained."

No further arrests were made inside the building and no other
cannabis was found.

It follows two previous raids on the building, one in July last
year, where officers attempted to smash their way into the cafe
using a battering ram.

During a second raid in October a tractor was used to pull out a
window.

Dr Brian Iddon, the Labour MP and former chemist who chairs the
group, told The Observer: 'Some GPs are addicting people by giving
them repeat prescriptions without checking to see how long they've
been on the drugs in the first place. They are not stopping patients
from getting any more of them after the set amount of time.'

The MPs' investigation into prescription and over-the-counter drugs
also claims that family doctors are contributing to growing problems
associated with these substances by not taking seriously enough
requests for help from addicts, and by mismanaging patients with
chronic pain.

Dr Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General
Practitioners, said it would take on board the MPs' findings, which
raised some important concerns about how family doctors treat
patients who may be abusing either prescription or shop-bought
drugs, or both.

[snip]

Thousands of online pharmacies now provide potentially lethal drugs
to anyone logging in and giving a credit-card number. An 'online
consultation' merely asks the customer how old he or she is and how
bad their pain is on a scale of one to 10.

The first video in the Short Cuts Documentary Series that ask the
question: why is marijuana illegal? Check it out and see what the
experts have to say. And, as always, you can find this video and
others on the Marijuana Policy Posse homepage at
http://www.marijuanapolicyposse.com/

Drug use is a health issue, not a criminal justice issue. That is the
message youth and students from the Canadian Students for Sensible
Drug Policy (CSSDP) delivered to Members of Parliament on February 4,
during their first hugely successful lobby day on Parliament Hill.

It's time to rein in the SWAT teams. Please sign our online petition:
"Enough is Enough: Petition to Limit Paramilitary Police Raids in
America." A copy will be sent in your name to your US Representative
and Senators, your state legislators, your governor, and the
president. When you're done, please tell your friends and please
spread the word wherever you can.

Your editorial calling on legislators to reject a reasonable
compromise and pass a bill that would allow any employer to fire any
medical marijuana patient is misguided.

You cite the fact that 16,000 patients are registered in the medical
marijuana program as evidence of abuse. Anti-marijuana forces hoped
there would be few patients benefiting from medical marijuana
because they don't want to admit that marijuana has a positive side.
The reality is that marijuana has proved to be a safer, more
effective medicine than many pharmaceutical alternatives. That is
why more than 2,600 Oregon doctors have recommended marijuana for
their patients.

Additionally, many carefully controlled scientific studies conducted
since Oregon voters passed the medical marijuana law have confirmed
what the doctors and patients know from experience. Marijuana is
safe and effective for some patients when used properly. Marijuana
relieves suffering.

Your call to fire medical marijuana patients won't make our
workplaces safer. The business interests that want to fire patients
have admitted that they can't cite a single example of a workplace
accident caused by a medical marijuana patient. Focusing on
marijuana and ignoring the risks from workers who are impaired from
alcohol, prescription drugs or just plain fatigue is whitewashing
the real problem.

What we really need in the workplace is impairment testing. This
would help employers identify workers who are dangerous to
themselves or others regardless of the reason.

DrugSense recognizes Officer Howard J. Wooldridge (retired) of
Frederick, Maryland for his six published letters during January,
which brings his total published letters that we know of up to 123.
Howard is an Education Specialist for Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Speakers&bio=23

So I may be about the last person in America to deal with this, but
I've come down with a nasty sore throat and cold, so I decided to go
to the Osco and get something for it.

I made sure I went during the hours that the pharmacy is open,
'cause of course I know about all the new rules -- and sure enough,
there were signs in the cold medicine aisles about some products not
being available out on the shelves.

So I asked the girl behind the counter if there was something she
could... recommend, and she said I'd have to talk to the head
pharmacist. I waited a few minutes until he returned and told him
that I had a serious sore throat progressing into a chest cold and
wanted some recommendation.

He led me out to the regular aisles and pointed out some products.
"These Chloraseptic lozenges are quite good for sore throat. Also,
be sure to get plenty of rest, and drink lots of fluids. You should
also gargle in salt water -- that can help. These zinc lozenges can
also be quite effective."

"Ah," I said, nodding. "Yes, those are good suggestions. But I was
hoping for something to help me with all the symptoms and get some
rest. Something like... NyQuil."

He pointed to his right. "Here's some NyQuil right here."

"Yes, but isn't that the... ah... I mean, isn't there something
better... you know, with... that ingredient."

He hestitated. "Yes, we have a bottle of the old stuff behind the
counter. I'll get you some."

While his assistant took my drivers license and address and
signature (he told me he didn't need the urine sample or
fingerprints), I had a nice chat with the pharmacist. He knew my dad
many years ago and we talked about ailments and building houses. A
very nice guy, doing his job in a strange world.

So now I have some of this dangerous old-style NyQuil in my bedroom,
and since they have my address, I'm waiting for the smash of my
door, and the conspiracy to think about doing something with
pseudoephedrine charge.

But I don't care. And I realized something. NyQuil isn't really
medicine, at least not by the way that the ONDCP seems to consider
medicine. It doesn't cure anything. It's called the Nightime
Sniffling Sneezing Coughing Aching Stuffyhead Fever So You Can Rest
Medicine but the key thing is that it just relieves symptoms so you
can rest (which is a good thing). In other words, it makes you feel
better.

That's right, I have a drug in my home that I scored from a
pharmacist that I use simply because it makes me feel good.

I must be a criminal.

But I got a good night's sleep last night.

Pete Guither is the author of Drug WarRant - www.drugwarrant.com - a
weblog at the front lines of the drug war, where this piece was
first presented.

Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
Stephen Young (steve@drugsense.org), This Just In selection by
Richard Lake (rlake@drugsense.org), International content selection
and analysis by Doug Snead (doug@drugsense.org), Cannabis/Hemp
content selection and analysis, Hot Off The Net selection and Layout
by Matt Elrod (webmaster@drugsense.org). Analysis comments represent
the personal views of editors, not necessarily the views of
DrugSense.

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